Centers & Institutes

Center for African and African American Research (CAAAR)

CAAAR cultivates the best of scholarship about Africa and its diaspora and broadcasts it beyond the ivy walls, not just for the sake of information but also in service to society. The Center is consciously interdisciplinary--encompassing all of the humanities and the social sciences-and international, embracing Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and Asia. CAAAR supports initiatives by students, faculty, and other professionals in the Duke community, while encouraging collaborations with scholars and professionals worldwide.

Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies brings together members of our Duke, local and worldwide communities in order to promote new ideas, research, language training and artistic representations about Latin America and the Caribbean. Through innovative coursework, academic conferences, global exchanges, outreach to local schools, and exposure to thought leaders from across the Americas, we prepare future leaders who may work in fields related to Latin America and the Caribbean in education, business, arts, government and many other careers.

Center for Multicultural Affairs (CMA)

The Center for Multicultural Affairs (CMA) promotes community engagement, multicultural education, leadership development, and social justice education among the student population. Our programs and services aim to empower students and their organizations to create a vibrant and inclusive community.

Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Social Sciences

The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS) provides a context where scholars interested in examining the constructs of race, ethnicity, and gender from an interdisciplinary perspective can engage each other in dialogue and collaboration. It offers opportunities for scholars researching issues of race, ethnicity, and gender to connect with colleagues in other departments and schools.

Center of Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID)

The Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID) is a global and transdisciplinary endeavor that brings together a broad range of collaborators and partners to explore and address questions at the intersection of race and genetics. Race is a focal point at GRID, along with other descent-related identities such as ancestry, ethnicity, tribe, and geographic and national classifications.

Duke African and African American Studies Department (AAAS)

AAAS is Duke’s center for interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship on Africa and people of African descent around the world, in particular the Black Atlantic. We host anthropologists, humanists, political scientists, historians, sociologists, geneticists, scholars of the performing arts and literature whose work engages questions of race, class, gender, sexuality, politics and the law to study the conditions and experiences of Africans and communities of the African diaspora.

Duke Center on Law, Race and Politics (CLRP) — Law School

The Duke Center on Law, Race and Politics (CLRP) is a multidisciplinary initiative created to support research, public engagement, teaching, and activities at the intersection of CLRP's core focus. CLRP is particularly committed to supporting law and social science students whose academic work and activities are consistent with the center’s mission. Forms of support include grants to encourage independent academic research by students, research assistantships, supervision of academic work, mentorship, and opportunities for close collaboration with CLRP's faculty.

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

The Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS) provides a vibrant hub for all who share our vision of making neuroscience greater than the sum of its parts by integrating schools, disciplines, analysis and education to accelerate breakthroughs and benefit society. The DIBS mission is to promote interdisciplinary brain science and translate discoveries into solutions for health and society. Each year, DIBS touches thousands of people, from our 190-member Faculty Network and hundreds of students and trainees to the many who benefit from campus, community, and outreach activities.

Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) — Sanford School

The Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) seminar is an interdisciplinary, vertically integrated research course that emphasizes a judicious application of mixed methods from the social sciences and humanities, including quantitative, qualitative, and archival research. GIRI facilitates integrated study and research across fields of social, historical, and political inequality.

John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI)

The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) is built on a fundamentally collaborative model befitting the Duke University emphasis on knowledge in the service of society. Through interdisciplinary cross-fertilization, we seek to encourage the conversations, partnerships, and collaborations that continually stimulate creative and fresh humanistic research, writing, teaching, and practice at Duke. Inspired by the scholarly and civic example of John Hope Franklin, we also support work that engages questions of race and social equity in their most profound historical and global dimensions.

Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture (MLWC)

The Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture strives to promote racial understanding, build community, and foster an appreciation for and increase knowledge of Black people, Black history, Black culture, and the vast contributions of people of the African Diaspora.

Office of Black Church Studies (OBCS) — Divinity School

OBCS supports the theological formation of all students who are informed and inspired by the rich history and traditions of the Black Church. It supports the work of the faculty, especially those teaching and administering courses in black church studies, and advises black seminarians and prospective students who are interested in the intersection of race, faith, and Christian witness.

Office for Institutional Equity (OIE)

OIE works with Duke leaders, managers, faculty, staff, and administrators to help them build a healthy, thriving work environment where all team members feel valued and respected. Our trainings, workshops, presentations, and strategy design services empower learners to work effectively with those who have different worldviews, perspectives, backgrounds, values, and experiences. 

Office of Diversity & Inclusion — Medical School

The Office of Diversity & Inclusion in the Duke University School of Medicine is committed to developing and implementing a culture of inclusion in which students, faculty and staff from diverse talent pools experience a genuine sense of belonging, engagement and achievement.

Office of Diversity & Inclusion in Engineering — Pratt School of Engineering

The Duke University Pratt School of Engineering is committed to being a diverse community of people with ideas and approaches that make a difference locally, nationally and globally. At the core of our diversity philosophy is a belief that multicultural learning is truly an integral part of our personal, social and moral growth—as individuals and as a university.

Pauli Murray Project (Franklin Humanities Institute)

The Pauli Murray Project envisions a Durham community that actively works toward fairness and justice across divisions such as race, class, sexual & gender identity and spiritual practice that often divide us. We embrace the transformative power of collecting and telling our stories and our truths as a process that heals these divisions and promotes human rights.

Research Network on Racial & Ethnic Inequality

The Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality (The Network) is a consortium of scholars engaged in interdisciplinary inquiry on disparities between racial and ethnic groups in a comparative, cross-national context. The Network’s researchers examine the social structures and policies that have produced group-based disparities in wealth, income, employment, education, politics, health (both physical and mental), in addition to analyzing the transmission of advantage or disadvantage across generations.

The Duke Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity

The Duke Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity is a scholarly collaborative engaged in the study of the causes and consequences of inequality and in the assessment and redesign of remedies for inequality and its adverse effects. Concerned with the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of uneven and inequitable access to resources, opportunity and capabilities, Cook Center researchers take a cross-national comparative approach to the study of human difference and disparity.